For eight long years, since just after the dawn of the A.J. Smith period, we’ve been teased with every reason to believe that this is the year a Chargers team that looks so good will actually be good enough.

And so … with the caution that this could well be like the movie trailer that promises thrills and chills only to turn out to be “John Carter,” I am intrigued enough by what I see and hear to deliver the teasing news that the Chargers have perhaps found the final pieces of the puzzle.

This year, the Chargers faithful have been invigorated by a veritable free-agent frenzy and a draft class that seems so, well, good.

And, maybe, we are now to understand, there is more, an underlying ingredient that could be the conduit between tease and triumph.

Organized offseason workouts began a few weeks ago at Chargers Park, and those on the inside, most of them even more tired of their hollow promise than the rest of us, are seeing a new kind of Charger.

One that might actually know how to win. Really win.

“Everyone talks about making the playoffs,” head coach Norv Turner said when I asked him about returning to the playoffs after a two-year absence. “I want to be the team that wins the division, gets into the playoffs and can go win a championship. I think we’ve added a lot of guys who understand what I’m talking about … It’s not this year, it’s today. We have to do the little things that allow you to win.”

Robert Meachem provided something more than the ability to run and catch. When he was signed in March, he became the only current Charger to have actually played in a Super Bowl, his résumé including a contribution to the Saints’ victory in XLIV.

So, too, it was not coincidence that linebacker Jarret Johnson and fullback Le’Ron McClain spent significant time playing for the Baltimore Ravens. Not only have the Ravens been to the postseason four straight years and the AFC Championship Game twice in that span, they play a brand of football that takes prisoners and beats them unapologetically.

“Baltimore has a ton of big, physical, athletic guys that play with a chip on their shoulders,” Johnson said. “They play to win a fight. I was part of that for a long time.”

Even as there has not been any contact, not even any helmets and very few team drills, the Chargers who have been here are impressed with the work put in by the new Chargers. In the hard work they’ve immediately committed to, there seems to be a want-to from guys who have had success but not the ultimate kind. Even in Meachem, there appears to those working next to him and talking with him to be a desire to further his legacy beyond that of a bit player on a championship team. Same for safety Atari Bigby, who has a Super Bowl ring for his modest contributions to the Green Bay Packers Super Bowl campaign two seasons ago.

Takeo Spikes says this is already the most intense offseason program he’s been a part of in 15 years in the NFL.

“These guys, they get it,” Spike said. “It’s not like you have to train a guy to be something he’s not.”

Is it enough?

We don’t know now and won’t know for some time.

It’s really nothing more than hope in May. (Hope and a quarter used to buy you a newspaper.)

We’ve heard some of these same earnest words in the past. Spikes, for instance, was hailed as bringing a new blend of experience and intensity last year. He did, and yet the Chargers finished 8-8 and, for a second straight season, out of the playoffs.

For various reasons, Spikes’ tenacity wasn’t enough.

So the Chargers set about finding a few new starters and a bunch of role players to make sure six-game losing streaks don’t happen when the inevitable rash of injuries strikes. Talent, for sure, was vital in the selection process. But so was a certain kind of understanding and hunger.

“One thing that stands out already about the makeup of our team is we’ve got a bunch of guys that love football,” Philip Rivers said. “They just love football.”

Rivers, ever honest, is also wary of offending. So he notes that he has had an inkling of this before.

“I feel that way every year,” he said. “I don’t want to be unfair to guys that were here.”

But don’t take that as Rivers taking the eraser to what he said previously. He’s just making sure it’s understood that the Chargers were not devoid of passion.

“Some of them were already here,” Rivers said. “But the guys they have brought in, they all have a little bit of an attitude, just have that demeanor.”

This is nothing more than hopeful words, a possibility. But it’s something. You want a team to evolve.